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The world of Esports is new to many people including sponsors, investors and others who could have a potential impact on the growth of its industry. Some of these people are too uneducated on the topic and need a reason to involve themselves within the industry but may be unsettled considering its high number of risks and returns if to participate. Paze Roberts (2024)

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Image from Strategic Management Insight Website 

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Concept of business strategy via the RBV approach

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Concept of business strategy via the RBV approach

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The concept of business strategy is to find competitive advantages by locating parts of a market that haven't been fulfilled and approaching them with the correct strategy to succeed, Rouibah (2002). This is important as it allows businesses to grow via opportunities and influences the classification of strategy within different business systems such as management within organisations, Kald, M (2000). A common framework used in business strategy is the resource-based view (RBV) approach. The RBV approach is commonly used within other fields similar to esports such as football leagues which contain gaining competitive advantages within gameplay, events, and business strategy just to name a few similarities. The findings of RBV approach suggest the adaptability and sustainability of businesses increase when using the framework, Gúdel, R. et al. (2025).

The RBV approach starts by deciding whether what your analysing is tangible, something that is physical and can be touched for e.g. money that comes out or goes into the business. The resource could also be intangible such as the brand image meaning the resource isn't a physical object or something that can't be touched. The resource then must be either heterogeneous (something different or bound to change) or immobile (something that doesn't change) before it can be analysed in the VRIO (value, rarity, imitability, organisation) to see how much of a competitive advantage the resource will give towards the business, Assensoh-Kodua, A (2019).

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Image taken from esports insider website 

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Faze Clan and RollBit partnership succession

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Faze Clan and RollBit partnership succession

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Strategic decisions are made by companies all the time within esports for e.g. Faze Clan, an esports team that is deemed as super successful within the gaming scene and competes across many games such as Call of Duty, Counter Strike, Fortnite and many more. The Faze Clan Counterstrike team have become partners with Rollbit, a popular gambling site used for betting and slot machines. A good reason for this partnership is that Counter Strike is a very gambling heavy game with their own market being run within the game featuring cosmetics that get sold from pennies up to millions of dollars therefore like-minded people may become interested in the matter especially when gambling on their favourite teams within one of the biggest esports competitions games, Sweeney, K (2021). The agreement is seen as a multi-million-dollar agreement and has allowed Faze Clan to expand off it with innovative content. The agreement started off in January 2024 originally contracted to last 6 months but received such positive outcomes that the contract has been expanded resulting in more growth for both companies.

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Faze Clan and RollBit Partnership VRIO Framework

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Faze Clan and RollBit Partnership VRIO Framework

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Team Liquid and Fabiano Caruana recruitment 

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Team Liquid and Fabiano Caruana recruitment 

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Another e.g. is the competitive advantage that Team Liquid have especially for the Esports World Cup recruiting Fabiano Caruana, a well-known chess grandmaster who specialises in fast paced chess games well fitted for the Esports World Cup chess format. Team Liquid are an esports organisation who participate in many games such as Fortnite, League of Legends and now as of recently, Chess. Fabiano is ranked the 2nd best chess player in the world and is a strong competitor for upcoming competitions Team Liquid are providing him opportunities for. With this opportunity Team Liquid will be able to compete in the Esports World Cup whilst Fabiano will be under an esports organisations plan following things such as dietary plans, training programs and other benefits, Ribeiro, F.J.V. (2024)

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Team Liquid and Fabiano Caruana VRIO Framework

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Team Liquid and Fabiano Caruana VRIO Framework

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Team Liquid resource-based strategy in esports 

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Team Liquid resource-based strategy in esports 

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As Team Liquid is one of the most successful esports organisations out there, there is good reason to investigate their resource-based strategy that they use to gain a competitive advantage. Their strategy largely focuses on unique, valuable and inimitable resources to maintain its position within the esports industry. One of the key elements is their talent acquisition as they do look out for top tier competitors in terms of players, coaches and people who help run the organisation. This allows them to accomplish spectacular performances in tournaments, online competitions and many other things. Bubna, K (2023). Strategic choices between partnerships and sponsorships are a resource that keeps Liquid from going into financial problems. They have collaborated with the like of Alienware, Honda, Monster and many more providing them financial stability and other benefits like top end technology and energy supplements to keep their team focused. This also increases their fan engagement and allows them to expand to newer markets, Korpimies, S (2017). Content creation being one of Team Liquids big resource strategy as it is for most esports organisations allows for audience interactions creating a sense of community increasing their brand loyalty and overall fan engagement, Nkegbe, F (2023).

The resource-based strategies that Team Liquid perform have substantially impacted them not just within esports but also in other fields. With maintaining their talent acquisition, they have managed to sustain a competitive success with strong rosters across multiple games proven by them placing in top positions in international tournaments, Anderson, R (2023). Another impact from their strategy is financial growth as things such as sponsorships, merchandising, content creation and other revenue streams allow for Liquid to have no fear in running out of financial stability as it is common for esports organisations to run into this problem, Nyström, A.G (2022). A main impact for Team Liquid from their content creation side of things is their brand recognition and fan loyalty therefore by creating different forms of content from different talents within their organisation builds up their own brand loyalty and their players brand loyalty, Tarkiainen, S (2020)

Even though these strategies are securing Team Liquids succession in the esports industry there are change management issues that they can run into. Talent retention and stability is a hard thing to maintain as the esports industry is rapidly changing constantly therefore long-term commitments with players, coaches and business partners is challenging for them, Meng-Lewis, Y (2021). Leading on from business partners maintaining partnerships whilst adapting to the evolution of the esports industry companies like Alienware must be relied on to supply the team with technological advancements whilst keeping their players in the correct mindset preparing them for shifts in meta in whatever game they are competing in, Olsen, A.H., (2015). An issue with content creation within the esports scene is that it isn't always consistent therefore Team Liquid must balance out their business ventures to maintain their competitive standard due to change in interests of the players, sponsors and other stakeholders, Weiss, T (2013)

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. Andersen, R., Scholz, T.M. and Simonsen, C.R., 2023. Level up: Unleashing the potential of esports for transerable skill delevopment in the digital working world. ICERI2023 Proceedings.

. Assensoh-Kodua, A., 2019. The resource-based view: A tool of key competency for competitive advantage. Problems and Perspectives in Management, 17(3), p.143.

. Bubna, K., Trotter, M.G., Watson, M. and Polman, R., 2023. Coaching and talent development in esports: a theoretical framework and suggestions for future research. Frontiers in Psychology, 14, p.1191801.

. Kald, M., Nilsson, F. and Rapp, B., 2000. On strategy and management control: the importance of classifying the strategy of the business. British journal of management, 11(3), pp.197-212.

. Gúdel, R. et al. (2025) ‘Ownership landscape: an RBV perspective of football leagues’ configurations diversity’, Managing Sport and Leisure, pp. 1–19

. Korpimies, S., 2017. Sponsorships in eSports.

. Meng-Lewis, Y., Wong, D., Zhao, Y., & Lewis, G. (2021). Understanding complexity and dynamics in the career development of eSports athletes. Sport Management Review, 25(1), 106–133.

. Nkegbe, F. and Abor, Y., 2023. The role of social media in enhancing customer engagement and brand loyalty. Journal of Policy Options, 6(3), pp.26-34.

. Nyström, A.G., McCauley, B., Macey, J., Besombes, N., Cestino, J., Hiltscher, J., Stephanie, O., Rumble, R. and Törmänen, M., 2022. Current issues of sustainability in esports. International Journal of Esports, 1(1).

. Olsen, A.H., 2015. The evolution of eSports: An analysis of its origin and a look at its prospective future growth as enhanced by Information Technology Management tools. arXiv preprint arXiv:1509.08795.

. Ribeiro, F.J.V., 2024. Chess and eSports Nutrition: Dietary Habits, Lifestyles and Hydration Status.

. Roberts Paze. EMBRACING ESPORTS MARKET INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITIES: Final Master Thesis in Sport Business Management/ Renata Legenzova / Vytautas Magnus University, Faculty of Economics and Management, Graduate studies. – Kaunas, 2024. pp.16-18

. Rouibah, Kamel, and Samia Ould-Ali. "PUZZLE: a concept and prototype for linking business intelligence to business strategy." The Journal of Strategic Information Systems 11.2 (2002): 133-152.

. Sweeney, K., Tuttle, M.H. and Berg, M.D., 2021. Esports gambling: Market structure and biases. Games and Culture, 16(1), pp.65-91.

. Tarkiainen, S., 2020. How eSports players create brand loyalty through online engagement.

. Weiss, T. and Schiele, S., 2013. Virtual worlds in competitive contexts: Analyzing eSports consumer needs. Electronic Markets, 23, pp.307-316.